Apple Defends Cloud Computing’s Green Cred

Apple disclosed sensitive information about energy demand at the data center housing its iCloud service for the first time on Tuesday, defending its green credentials in the face of a campaign by Greenpeace.

In a report rating 14 companies leading the migration from local computers to cloud computing, Greenpeace gave failing grades to Apple, Amazon and Microsoft for their reliance on highly polluting coal to power their data center.

But Apple said its new iCloud data center would be the greenest ever built, and that Greenpeace had wildly over-estimated its energy demand. The new facility would use just one-fifth of the electricity estimated by Greenpeace, the company said. It would eventually draw 60% of its on-site power from renewable sources.

“Our data center in North Carolina will draw about 20 megawatts at full capacity,” an Apple spokeswoman said. “We believe this industry-leading project will make Maiden the greenest data center ever built.”

Greenpeace has been engaged in a campaign to draw attention to tech companies that rely on dirty energy to power their cloud. In addition to the tech giants, it called out Twitter for expanding its data operations from Sacramento, which uses renewable energy, to coal-heavy Atlanta. Meanwhile, the campaign group gave bonus points to Yahoo and Google for pursuing renewable sources of energy for their data center, and for pressing government on clean-energy policy.

Data center account for a growing share of the carbon pollution associated with the IT industry. With the move to the cloud, IT companies are spending $450bn (£282bn) a year on new space for data center. Electricity demand from data center is expected to grow by 19% in 2012, the report said, quoting industry leaders.

Many of those computer farms – like Apple’s data center in Maiden, North Carolina – are being powered by coal and nuclear energy. North Carolina gets roughly half of its energy from coal and the other half from nuclear power, a spokesman for the state’s main energy company, Duke Energy, said.

“The Apple cloud is heavily powered by dirty energy, particularly coal and coal that is coming from mountain-top removal in Appalachia,” said Gary Cook, who wrote the report, How Clean Is Your Cloud. “It is certainly not what you would expect from a company like Apple that challenged us to think differently. Here they bought into energy that is old industry and technology.”

The data center in Maiden occupies 500,000 sq ft. Apple spent $1bn on the facility, and reportedly plans to spend billions more in 2012.

Cook was sceptical of Apple’s figures for energy demand. “I do feel that’s a bit of a lowball number. That would be a very empty building they are putting there in terms of power demand if it’s only 20MW. That seems disproportionally small,” he said.

Apple is also building a solar farm and a fuel cell installation for the data center, and plans to get 60% of its on-site power from renewable sources.

Microsoft would not comment on the report.

Amazon said the report was based on inaccurate assumptions and data. “Amazon web services (AWS) believes that cloud computing is inherently more environmentally friendly than traditional computing. Instead of each company having their own data center that serves just them, AWS makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of companies to consolidate their data center use into a handful of data center,” spokesman Andrew Hardener said. “The cloud enables a combined smaller carbon footprint that significantly reduces overall consumption.”

However, Twitter said it was looking into the findings. “The Greenpeace report raises important considerations around energy efficiency. We continue to strive for greater energy efficiency as we build out our infrastructure, and we look forward to sharing more on our efforts in this space in the coming months,” said spokeswoman Carolyn Penner.

The report argues that for all their focus on innovation, tech companies are profoundly conventional when it comes to making decisions about energy needs. “Most IT companies are currently choosing to buy their electricity off the rack, at the lowest possible price, with the focus on its quantity, not its quality,” it said.

That’s been good for small towns like Maiden, which has sold itself to tech companies as a “data center corridor” by offering cheap electricity. Tech companies are also notoriously unwilling to disclose information about their electricity use, on the grounds that it could be used by business rivals, Greenpeace said.

Andrea Moffat of the Ceres green investment network argues that this may become unsustainable. Corporate clients of the data farms, such as insurance companies, increasingly are bowing to shareholders’ demands to reveal their own carbon footprint. That is bound to have a knock-on effect on the tech companies, she said.

Some companies are already moving to clean up their cloud, as Greenpeace notes in the report. Google set up its own energy division to source cleaner electricity sources, and entered into 20-year contracts to buy wind power from Iowa and Oklahoma. Facebook, which was targeted last year by the Greenpeace Unfriend Coal campaign, is building a new data center in Sweden, its largest yet, to be powered by hydroelectricity.

Moffat called for tech companies with large data center to set renewable energy targets. She also called on them to lobby governments to extend tax credits for wind and solar producers.

Some companies have begun to take similar steps, such as eBay, which is not mentioned in the report. The online marketplace built its first data center in Utah. It lobbied hard for legislation, passed last month, which for the first time enabled customers to purchase renewable power. The state otherwise gets virtually all of its electricity from coal.

“They have a lot of power in the policy field that we are not seeing them using,” Moffat said.

About Author

Walter’s contributions to CleanTechies over the past 4 years have been instrumental in growing the publications social media channels via his ongoing editorial and data driven strategies. He is the founder and managing director of Sunflower Tax, a renewable energy tax and finance consultancy based in San Diego, California. Active in the San Diego clean technology community, participating in events sponsored by CleanTech San Diego, EcoTopics, and Cleantech Open San Diego, Walter has also been a presenter at numerous California Center for Sustainability (CCSE) programs. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law where he teaches a course on energy taxation and policy.